Restore expunged parts of speech, says Kharge; RS chair rejects call

NEW DELHI: Leader of the opposition in RS, Mallikarjun Kharge, on Friday raised the issue of portions of his speech during the debate on motion of thanks to the President’s address being expunged, and demanded that they be restored.

Raising the matter soon after Zero Hour, Kharge said the expunged portion did not contain anything “defamatory or unparliamentary” and urged the Chair to reconsider the decision. He said he would release the full speech to the public if his request was not accepted, prompting a sharp reaction from chairman C P Radhakrishnan. The chairman said the decision of the Chair cannot be questioned and said the expunged portions of the record cannot be released.




Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman quoted Rule 261 of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) and said if the Chairman is of the opinion that words have been used which are defamatory or indecent or unparliamentary or undignified, he may in his discretion order such portions to be expunged from the proceedings of the House.

Kharge said he made several important points in his speech on Feb 4 which were missing from the version uploaded on Rajya Sabha website. “I made several important points, ranging from social justice to the parliamentary system. However, upon reviewing the verbatim text of the speech uploaded on the website, I found a large portion of my speech had been expunged or deleted without any proper justification,” the Congress MP said.

He asserted he had made factual comments on parliamentary proceedings during the current govt’s tenure and criticised certain policies of the PM in his capacity as LoP. Citing his five-decade-long parliamentary career, Kharge said he has always been conscious and attentive of the decorum of language, being aware of the dignity of the House, its rules and traditions, and the duties of the presiding officer.

“I request you to reconsider and reinstate the deleted portions,” he said.
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